It should have been a glorious moment for Alex Dowsett, riding through his home county during the third stage of this year’s Tour de France. Yet with people lining the streets to celebrate, one man was hurting, vexed with rage and drowning in disappointment while he watched from the sidelines.

How far away those emotions will feel now after a victory in the individual time trial that must be regarded as one of the more remarkable performances at these Games. Dowsett turned despair to delight and gloom to gold with every gruelling spin of a spoke, upgrading his silver from four years ago to emerge as Commonwealth champion.

The Essex boy who turned up to last week’s England media briefing in a pair of maroon loafers departed Glasgow Green feeling like he had diamonds on the soles of his shoes. His margin of victory over Rohan Dennis was more than nine seconds – a stunning display of late pace that eviscerated the Australian’s comfortable lead he had held with 6km of the 38km remaining.

Dowsett has overcome a number of obstacles in his career but none more difficult than missing this year’s Tour because of illness. Yet, without that pain, without that devastation, Thursday’s victory on the roads of Scotland would not have been possible. It was, he conceded, a display motivated by anger, emotion coursing through his veins as much as the adrenalin that dragged him over the line after a brutal 47 minutes.

“It was tough when it went through Essex,” said Dowsett of his Tour disappointment, before going on to explain how that blow ended up being the making of this victory.

“I seem to perform better when I am hacked off about something. I was angry for pretty much the whole month. I was an arse to live with. I took it out on everyone, especially my family – they bore the brunt of it. I’ve always been the same, since I was a kid. I usually pull something fairly big out of the bag when I’m really angry.

“Those training sessions where you don’t feel like you’re quite on the money, normally I might bale out and try again tomorrow; I was really digging deep a lot of the time and trying to find that extra little bit. I could’ve been sitting in my room utterly depressed for a whole month.”

Team England will be thankful he did not, Dowsett securing a famous gold that almost followed a win for Emma Pooley earlier in the day. Pooley, who retires from cycling after Sunday’s road race here, was beaten by six seconds by the New Zealand rider Linda Villumsen, the partner of Laura Trott’s sister, Emma, and took silver. Joanna Rowsell was unable to replicate her winning performance in the velodrome and finished 13th.

Pooley, 31, is turning her attention to triathlon but, despite missing out on gold to Villumsen – who finished the 29km course in 42:25.46 – she was pleased to come away with a silver. “I’m thrilled to have a medal, especially with such fantastic support on the course,” she said. “It’s a nice way to do the last time trial of my career.”

This was to be Dowsett’s afternoon but at one point his British team-mate Geraint Thomas, racing for Wales, had appeared the favourite for gold. After negotiating a course that cut through the countryside to the north-east of Glasgow, Thomas returned to the city and set the fastest time of the day, before Dennis and then Dowsett both eclipsed it to leave the Welshman in third.

“On the course today, my power figures were big for a course like that, I think I had 420 watts average, which, on a lumpy course, is huge for me,” said Dowsett, who then described the disappointments in his career to date.

“Breaking my elbow and getting close to MRSA in the operation to fix it a couple of months out from the Olympics. Before the world championships at the end of last year I was going really well – I picked up a little bug, I was down by about 30% power, Tony Martin rolled me and I got in the bus after that and burst into tears.

“It’s nice that things have gone right for this one. I changed coaches this year, I’ve been working a lot harder and changed my approach. It’s testament to my whole support team really. My family, my coaches, Movistar as well. They’ve been massively supportive.”

Above all, though, it was Dowsett’s desire that proved the difference.